They know what they let go – a chance to enter a severe second-half schedule a step ahead.

“The bulk of our division is coming up,” Antonio Gates said. “It was important for us to take care of this game and get this win on the road.”

The difference between being 5-3 and 4-4 today, following Sunday’s 30-24 loss to the Washington Redskins, is greater than the lost opportunity to be sitting in the sixth-and-final playoff spot. It’s about the trauma of going from extremely confident to gravely concerned in about the time it took to not move the final two feet into the end zone and then let the Washington Redskins drive 78 yards for a game-winning touchdown.

“We had a chance to finish it off,” Eric Weddle said. “You expect to finish it off. It was there for us. That’s what is so hard to deal with.”

Not everyone was so candid. But the mood in the visitors’ locker room at FedEx Field matched the tenor of Weddle’s words. The Chargers -- do not be fooled by platitudes -- were devastated as they readied for a long flight home.

And now comes the hard part.

“Yep,” left tackle King Dunlap said with a chuckle. “These last (eight) games ...”

The Chargers’ first eight opponents had a combined winning percentage of .409 and included just two teams that currently have winning records. Their final eight opponents have a combined .620 winning percentage, which only counts the Kansas City Chiefs’ 9-0 mark once and the Denver Broncos’ 7-1 record once even though the Chargers play both teams twice.

That’s the bad news.

If we can suspend skepticism (and the laws of probability) for a few moments, though, there is a sliver of silver-lined perspective. It is merely interesting to those of us observing but intrinsically necessary to clench for those involved.

An unprecedented schedule alignment has the Chargers playing five (of their six total) division games over the final eight weeks of the season. Not since the NFL went to four-division alignments in the two conferences in 2002 have the Chargers played that many AFC West opponents in the season’s second half.

“Yeah, let’s get after it,” Hardwick said of the unique opportunity. “It’s great. It’s going to come down to it.”

The Chargers’ second half run/slog through the AFC West begins Sunday at home against Denver.

Back-to-back trips to Miami (4-4) and Kansas City follow. Then comes a home game against Cincinnati (6-2).

By the time the Chargers play another losing team -- the New York Giants (2-6) – it will likely be clear that we can begin thinking about a pick in the top half of the first round.

Not even my favorite optimist is suggesting this is a favorable slate.

“Will it be really hard to be 5-1?” Philip Rivers asked before providing the obvious answer. “Yeah. But so what? They will all get kicked off.”

Meaning the Chargers can only play who they play, and they’ve been given the gift of playing the teams they need to beat. Put another way, they do not have to count entirely on others slowing down the Broncos and/or Chiefs.